The Planet of Beautiful Sunsets
by Laughing5
Summary: The 11th Doctor and Clara Oswald are in need of a vacation but everything turns sour when the Doctor stumbles into something he isn't supposed to. What will happen when it's up to Clara to save the Doctor? An adventure with romance and suspense.
1. The Strange Visitor

"We need a vacation," declared the Doctor. He leaned on the TARDIS console in the way he did when he was acting especially Doctor-ish. Clara mimicked his lean and regarded his boyish smirk with a girlish smirk of her own.

"Oh?"

"Yes we do, and I know just the place." He began to dance around the console, flipping switches and turning knobs, performing a spin every now and again just to spice things up. Clara couldn't bite back her laughter any longer. She loved watching him when he got like this. He was so…lively. So happy, even though she knew in his many, many years, he'd seen so much sadness. How was he able to exonerate life and joy the way he did when Clara knew behind those ancient eyes, there was more sorrow than she could ever begin to comprehend. "Have you been to the planet Compedibus Obstrictus before, Clara? No, of course you haven't. They have beautiful sunsets there. Well, the name of the planet actually _means_ beautiful sunset in Latin which is strange because I'm sure whoever named that planet wouldn't even _know_ Latin…"

Clara let him ramble because she knew once he got started he wouldn't be stopping anytime soon. Instead of listening to him go on about some nebula in some solar system somewhere, she thought about sunsets and thinking about sunsets made her think about Earth and thinking about Earth made her inexplicably homesick. She felt her smile travel downward. She was soon staring at a red blinking light on the console with an expression very close to a frown.

"Clara?" She jerked her head up at the sound of his worried tone. Her immediate thought was that something had gone wrong in their travel, since it seemed something _always_ went wrong, but when she met his worried gaze, she realized the worry was directed at her. She forced one of those appropriate smiles and shook her head. "What's wrong? We…don't have to go to Compedibus Obstrictus if you don't want. I just thought…"

"No!" She breathed a laugh in spite of herself. "No, Doctor that sounds absolutely brilliant. I don't know what got into me just then. A bit of homesickness maybe." The Doctor looked awkward for all of about fifteen seconds until he smiled and held up a finger to silently say: hold on a sec, and disappeared somewhere into the TARDIS.

Clara couldn't even begin to fathom what he could be up to. But just when she was starting to get some truly bizarre scenarios in her brain about what he could be doing, he came bounding back into the control room holding a little black ring box. Her breath caught.

"What's that?" she asked. She couldn't tell if she was eyeing the box as if it was poisonous or as if it was made of gold.

"_This?_" He looked at the box with mock surprise, pretending as though it had just materialized in his hand. "This is a little present. I don't exactly think it helps with homesickness all that much but…well." He thrust the little velvet box before him, the most adorable and goofy grin spread across his face.

Clara smiled with sincerity. It didn't matter what was in that box. She was already cheered up quite a bit. She reached out and took the little thing. It felt weightless in her palm. She opened it up and inside a simple silver bracelet sparked a wink at her. It was beautiful and simple and made her heart swell. Why did the Doctor have such a beautiful thing just lying around the TARDIS? She looked at him, a sly smile creeping onto her lips.

"Thank you, Doctor. This is…beautiful. But…why are you giving it to me?"

"Because you looked sad." His voice held that low, slow quality it did every so often. "And we all know about my weak spot for sad people." He smiled and Clara pounced into a hug. The Doctor stiffened in surprise but returned the hug all the same.

When she decided to release him, she looked at her new bracelet and slipped it onto her wrist. It fit like it had been made just for her and when she lifted it to the light, it seemed to spark and glint with personality. "Thank you so much, Doctor." But the Doctor had slipped away and was now hauling two beach chairs out through the TARDIS doors. "What are you doing?"

"Well, were not going to sit on the ground while we watch our sunset, are we?" He looked utterly appalled at even the consideration. "Come along. We don't have all day. Well, we actually have longer than normal since days are longer here. We get at least three hours of sunset here. I promise you it will be breathtaking."

Clara smiled and followed him outside the TARDIS.

The ground she stepped onto was not what she had been expecting. She wasn't sure what she _had_ been expecting but it certainly wasn't this. Her foot sank into the warm peach colored sand of a beach. She could hear the sound of crashing waves and could smell a distinct, yet alien smell of salty sea brine. She looked out into the distance and her breath caught in her throat.

Absolutely breathtaking. The sky was positively brimming with pink, yellow, orange and red clouds. The sun was a glowing yellow orb on the horizon and the ocean stretched out far beyond the eye could see. She let a breathed 'oh' escape her lips.

"Clara!" The Doctor's voice carried from a little ways away and she found him lounging in one of the white beach chairs that he'd hauled out there. She ran over to him, sand sinking uncomfortably into her sandals. Once she sat down, she ripped the infernal things off. "What do you think?" asked the Doctor, a self-satisfied awe coloring his voice.

"Oh, it's beautiful. And the sand's still warm. I can't believe things like this actually exist."

"Of course they exist!"

"Doctor, this is an _alien beach!_"

"_I know!_"

They laughed together as Clara danced around, kicking up the foreign sand. Finally after a while, she sat back down and looked out into the glorious sky. Alien bird-like creatures flapped about in the distance.

Clara looked over when she sensed stirring from the Doctor. "What are you doing?"

"Well, I must have a look around, haven't I?" He was already up and about, flinging his sonic screwdriver this way and that. Clara always wondered how he actually got _readings _from the thing.

"But, it's just a beach isn't it?"

"Shh…"

"Now, hold on a second, I–"

"Shh…"

"Enough with the shushing!"

"Clara! Shush! I'm getting a very strange…oh…my…"

Clara followed his line of vision, just about to tell him to stop being ridiculous when she saw what he was seeing. A girl running up the beach who looked very much so like…

"Doctor…why am I over there?" asked Clara as she witnessed herself, in the same red sundress, running over to her and the Doctor. Eventually, Clara number two reached the real Clara and the Doctor and stood in front of them, very much so out of breath.

"Clara!" Clara number two said. "Very soon something very bad will happen to the Doctor. And he'll need your help.

They stood staring at each other for a good thirty seconds before the Doctor shifted and coughed. "Well…" he began, "this is awkward."


	2. Glass Vial

"The Doctor told me that you have a special medicine in the TARDIS. I need it. Like…now." Clara number two was shifting back and forth on her feet looking incredibly nervous. The Doctor flung his sonic screwdriver in future Clara's direction like a weapon. "Please, he doesn't have much time."

"Doctor," the real Clara said, "what's going on?"

"You really are a future Clara? But how? Where am I? Where's the TARDIS?" The Doctor looked completely flabbergasted.

"You gave me this…this um…" she peered at the metallic bracelet on her wrist. "Oh! Trans-dimensional teleportation device. You gave me this before you were too worse off. Actually now that I think about it…it's my job to tell you to give this to me _before you're too worse off._ I hate time travel." She pressed a hand to her head as if the whole thing was giving her a headache.

"Yes, well. Still awkward. Do you have any proof you're not some sort of alien here to kill us or something?"

Future Clara looked hurt. "You don't believe me? Well, fine, be that way…um, I know there must be something…" The real Clara stood there totally bewildered. She was looking at her future self. It was strange. Like looking at a moving mirror image. "Oh!" Clara number two yelled making her and the Doctor jump. "This!" She thrust out her arm and flaunted the silver bracelet. Clara sucked in her breath. The bracelet the Doctor had given to her as a homesickness gift only moments before.

The Doctor looked satisfied but still faltered. "I'm sorry I can't interfere with my own time stream. Its number one on the 'never do' list." Future Clara seemed to deflate.

"Well, what about me?" Real Clara said. "I can go run into the TARDIS and grab the stuff you need. _I _would be interfering with your timeline, not you."

The Doctor considered this as he twirled the sonic around his index finger and then nodded. "Yes. That will work."

"What does it look like?"

"It's purple in a glass cylindrical vial in the infirmary. It's on the bottom shelf you can't miss it."

"Oh, bottom shelf. Thank God." Despite everything, the Doctor smiled. Clara bolted off for the TARDIS and the purple miracle drug.

The Doctor stood in front of this _second_ Clara and somehow just because she wasn't the present Clara made her alien and strange. He stared at her, trying to find some sort of fault but knew he wouldn't find anything. It did sound like the kind of thing he would do. Send Clara back in time to save him. But what could have happened to him to make him send Clara alone? "What's happened to me?" The Doctor said, never taking his eyes off the trembling figure before him. She stared back with those massive brown eyes but didn't look ready to speak. "Hold on. I forgot you can't tell me. Spoilers." He relaxed a little and smiled at her. She seemed relieved that she didn't have to answer.

"He told me not to tell you anything. Or…you told me not to tell you. It's very confusing…"

"Yeah, it really is." He sat down on the beach chair. Suddenly that brilliant sky didn't seem so brilliant anymore. It was tainted now with this new obstacle. Someday, he thought, he'd show Clara something beautiful without it going wrong. Someday he would make her truly happy because that's all he really wanted for her. But how could someone like him make a wonderful girl like her happy.

"You need to live." Clara made him look up. "For her. For me…" Clara was trembling from head to toe though it was nowhere near cold outside.

"Why are you acting like this? Where's all of your Clara Oswald spunk?"

"My Doctor is dying. _My_ Doctor is dying and I just…every second I spend here, he's getting a bit worse and I can't do anything because I'm a _stupid_ human. He always saves me. He's always there and now I can't do anything!" She kicked up sand and wrapped her arms around herself as if she was afraid of falling apart.

"What do you call this, then?" The Doctor waved his hand around Clara. "You being here. You call this doing nothing?" He flashed his best smirk for her and made her blush.

"Well, I…"

"Doctor!" It was Clara. _His_ Clara. She came sprinting from behind, holding a purple glass vial in her hand. "I got it!" She tossed it to her future self when she was in close enough range.

"Good luck, Clara Oswald." The Doctor said as Clara fiddled with her metallic device.

"You too…" And she was gone.

Clara and the Doctor stood there for a good thirty seconds before he finally sighed and turned around. He planted himself in one of the white beach chairs and peered out into the beautiful sunset.

"Is everything okay? Aren't you worried about what's going to happen to you?" Asked Clara as she took a seat in her own beach chair.

"Of course I am. But right now, we have a good hour left of this sunset and I don't want to miss it. Enjoy it now, Clara. We might have some hard times on our hands in the near future.

They did enjoy the sunset together as they talked and laughed about the ocean but the Doctor's thoughts were miles away from this beach and somewhere in deep in the chasms of his mind.


	3. The Black Plain

"We should go," The Doctor announced. It had been less than ten minutes since they'd sat down.

"Can you ever sit still?" Clara rested her head back against the tall backed beach chair. "I thought you wanted to enjoy the sunset?" Even so, she stood and collected her sandals and chair.

"I have enjoyed it. And now I think we should go." He stalked back to the TARDIS, chair in tow. 'Great,' Clara thought to herself, 'now he's going to be all pouty and silly.'

"Doctor, wait!" She hurried after him, taking care not to trip in the warm sand. When she made it back to the TARDIS, she found him leaning against the console looking very deep in thought. "Is everything okay?" she asked as she set the chair on the floor. But when she went to set the sandals down with it, she noticed they were completely drenched as if she had gone swimming in them. "Doctor?" She was about to ask him about the shoes but he unexpectedly flipped a switch on the console with much more force than necessary. "What's wrong?" she asked furrowing her brow at his outburst. The sandals could wait.

"I hate when these things happen!" He flung his hands about for added effect. "River constantly says, _spoilers, spoilers_! But what happened out there feels a lot like a spoiler if you ask me." He crossed his arms over his chest, looking like a little boy.

"Yes, well…you don't know _what's _going to happen do you, or when?" She tried to make her voice soothing but it seemed to only make things worse. He continued to sulk around the control room for a good amount of time. "Oh, stop it. Pacing won't change the future." Clara stood and placed her hands on his broad shoulders. It was times like this that she felt so small compared to him. "I don't like seeing you upset, so stop it." She performed her best 'do as I say' voice and his face relaxed a little. His face even found a smile.

"Yeah, yeah Clara Oswald. Fine." He removed himself from her tiny hands and went to flip a knob on the console. No sooner was the TARDIS groaning and wheezing as it did for takeoff.

"Where are we going, then?" Clara could feel her excitement stir as she leaned her hands against the console. The Doctor only smiled slyly.

"_We_…are going somewhere wonderful!" he flipped a switch, "Somewhere, beautiful!" a spin, "Somewhere, extraordinary!" The TARDIS ceased its wheezing and the Doctor went to fling the doors open. "We are going somewhere…" but the world that greeted them was, dark, cold and dead. Clara could just make out the silhouette of alien trees and shrubbery in the distance and she could smell rot and decay in the air. "Ooh…not very good." The Doctor spun on his heel and regarded his blue box with a sour expression. "This is _not_ what I asked for, you…you…" He deflated. "Oh, whatever. It's not like it won't happen again." He patted the side panel of his time machine gently. She was forgiven.

"Doctor, where are we?" Clara asked as she looked out onto the black horizon. It looked like some sort of dark, deserted plain. Like a macabre savannah without the animals and heat and sunshine. The only light was that of the light shining through the crack of the open TARDIS door. It shone a thin sliver on the ground providing not much illumination at all.

"I'm not sure. But we shouldn't stay. This place looks like it hasn't seen life in ages." He turned on his heel and went back into the TARDIS and Clara was all too eager to follow him. The silence of the black plain was deafening.

After that awful landscape, the warm TARDIS interior felt more comforting than stepping into a hot bath. "Doctor, I'm going to put on some tea." She flounced back to the kitchen, and went in search for the kettle.

The Doctor paced around the control room. It was coming. He knew that whatever that future Clara had been talking about had something to do with this creepy black planet. Where _were_ they anyway? The Doctor couldn't ever remember hearing about a plain of death in the history books.

He was conscious of Clara humming a tune in the kitchen as she made tea. He would take his mind off things and go keep her company. He found her sitting on the counter top eating vanilla ice cream out of a blue label-less carton.

"She gave me ice cream!" said Clara around a spoonful. "I think it's a good sign."

The Doctor let a sincere smile find his lips because truly, she could always make him feel better, even in the darkest of times. "That is, definitely, a good sign." He made his way over to one of the kitchen chairs and sat down. He looked at her and just admired as she chomped on her ice cream. He looked for a long time until he noticed something. "Clara?"

"Hmm?"

"Why are you barefoot?"

Clara's eyes went a little wide and she put her carton down. "Oh! I was going to ask you, but then you got all angsty." She waved her spoon at the Doctor who scowled. "My shoes were soaking wet when we got back into the TARDIS. I have no idea why. I never once went into the water."

The Doctor felt a massive wave of fear wash over him. He jumped up and ran back to the control room.

"Doctor! Wait! What's wrong now?"

He found her white sandals lying on the beach chair near the TARDIS entrance. And sure enough, they were soaking wet. But not with water.

"Oh no, no, no, no."

"Doctor, what's wrong?"

"This is extremely very not good."

"Tell me!"

The Doctor picked up the sandal and examined it thoroughly, flinging his sonic screwdriver all around it, hoping it wasn't what he thought. But, damn it. Why did it always have to be exactly what he thought?

"Clara, did these get sand in them? From the beach?"

"Yeah, I took them off because the sand had gotten all stuck in the cracks." Her eyes went round. "Have I done something wrong?"

The Doctor rubbed his face. "No, Clara. Well, yes. But I don't blame you. I should have warned you."

"What have I done?"

"You've brought in my downfall."


	4. The Poison Sand

At first, Clara simply looked stunned, but then her expression morphed into something a bit more skeptical. "No, I haven't. I can't have. It was just sand." She _did_ sound a bit incredulous. As if her words could change everything.

"It wasn't just sand. It was _alien_ sand. I should have warned you. That sand is atmosphere tempered." The Doctor dropped the shoe on the floor and walked back to the kitchen. There was nothing he could do now. He simply had to wait out the time until it happened. And besides, Clara had put on tea. "You take the sand out of its natural atmosphere and…" he paused, thinking of a way to word the next bit. Clara's eyes were two brown disks of worry.

"And?"

"And it melts."

Clara looked like she had been expecting something a bit more drastic. Her face softened a bit but the Doctor knew that would change very soon. He sat himself at the kitchen table and reached into his coat pocket for his jammy dodgers. Those would help his mood, if anything.

"Well, if that's all. It melts into what? Water?"

"Into a substance fatally poisonous to Time Lords." He bit fiercely into a cookie.

Clara was speechless. "But…nothing is poisonous to Time Lords." She spoke with finality and walked over to her whistling kettle, seeing the whole thing as a non-issue now. Oh, humans and their optimism.

"Of course there is. We aren't indestructible, you know." Another bite. 'Enjoy that cookie while you can,' He thought to himself.

"Okay, fine, but it's not like you were wearing the sandal or anything."

"I didn't have to. The poison is airborne once it becomes liquid. I've been exposed to it for almost thirty minutes."

It seemed to take a little while for this news to settle in. Enough time for her to find cups, pour the Doctor and herself some tea, get out the sugar bowl and sit at the table. She sipped a couple of times and then her eyes went wide. The Doctor nodded slowly, holding her gaze.

"Oh…Doctor…"

"Yes, I know…"

"Oh…_Doctor_." She stood suddenly, sending her chair back violently and tea across the table.

"Clara, calm down." He stood and held his hands out, trying his best to avoid the Clara typhoon that was quickly forming.

"But…I've _poisoned _you!" She was bent over the table and peering at the Doctor as if he was going to explode at any minute.

"No, you haven't. _Compedibus Obstrictus_ has." He approached her carefully because it appeared that she might be actually _frightened_ of him, which was ridiculous in every sense. "You haven't done anything wrong. I should have told you about the sand." He wrapped her in his arms in one quick motion. "Or I probably shouldn't have taken us there in the first place," he said into her hair. "Although, there are a lot of 'probably-s' when it comes to me…"

"Doctor…what are you going to do?"

"Well…I don't know." He stroked her hair. "And I don't like not knowing."

They stayed like that, in each other's arms, for a long while until Clara finally broke away and looked at him. "Do you think this is what she meant?"

The Doctor knew exactly what she was talking about. The future Clara had come to tell them that the Doctor had been dying. Perhaps this was the cause. The prospect was sort of terrifying. Even though the Doctor wouldn't _die, _die per se, he quite liked the face he had now and didn't want to regenerate any time soon.

"Perhaps…" The Doctor ran over to his console and checked his scans of the planet they'd landed on. "Yes, this atmosphere _may be_ able to reverse the effects of the poison. If we spend a bit of time out there, I should be okay. Maybe I won't die after all. Wouldn't that be splendid? A day where I don't die is a good day in _my _book."

"You mean we have to go back out _there_?" She gestured toward the TARDIS doors as if outside lay a deadly pool of acid.

"Listen," he said, suddenly becoming very serious, "I don't know all the way how this is going to affect me, so be ready for anything. The poison attacks brain function and the nervous system so I may act…"

"Like a complete lunatic…"

"Well, yes. I could have said it a bit more eloquently…" He rubbed the back of his head.

Clara let a slightly hysterical bubble of laughter escape her.

"We'll figure this out."

They linked hands and made their way for the TARDIS doors. Once outside, the Doctor forgot how cold and _weird_ it was out here. It felt as if the entire planet had _died._

They took a few steps on the black ground, (was it dirt?) and no sooner did they hear the wheezing and groaning of the TARDIS.

"NO!" The Doctor and Clara went running after the already disappearing TARDIS at the same time and being met by empty space. "No, no, no, no!"

"Oooooh." Clara groaned.


	5. The Trek

Clara watched the Doctor walk in five full circles before finally standing still. He was fuming. Clara rarely saw him act like that but when she did, she didn't like it. But finally he stood still and took cleansing breaths as if trying to meditate. "It'll be okay," he began, eyes closed, "I set the spatial landing radius before we left. The TARDIS _will_ land on this planet. The only thing is…how _big _is this planet?" He looked around and twiddled his fingers as he did when he was nervous.

Clara stepped in a tight little circle, trying to get an idea of just _how big_ the planet really was. But the ending conclusion was not a good one. It looked big…quite big. Too big to just go meandering about on a 'Lost TARDIS' search.

"What do we do?" But Clara stopped to think. "Well, you should be okay now, eh? You said if you spent a bit of time out here, it might cure you. Do you feel any more…" she groped for the right word, "healthy? Or something?" She squished up her face at how lame that sounded. But the Doctor didn't seem to be listening all the way. He was walking around aimlessly, obviously in his how mind. He twirled the sonic screwdriver around his finger and then pointed it in a direction directly in front of him. "What is it?" She walked up to stand next to him and looked out to hopefully see whatever the sonic was buzzing at but she was met with nothing but more, black, dead landscape.

"This indicates that there are life signs that way." He flicked the device up and peered at it. "But I can't imagine anything could really _live_ out here." He looked thoughtful and Clara didn't like when he looked like that, because that usually meant that he didn't understand something. And when the Doctor didn't understand something that usually led to danger. Danger was…un-fun.

"Could it be an animal or something?"

"Yes, it could be…" There was a definite 'but' hanging on the end of that statement. "We should check it out." And with that decision, he set off across the blackened dirt…rock…whatever the ground was made of.

"Doctor, wait!" Clara went after him, hating the fact that she was still barefoot and hoping that this weird ground wasn't poisonous somehow.

The walked for a little ways until they came up to one of the dead looking trees that Clara had seen in the distance. It was as horrible and black as everything else on the awful planet. She walked over to it and gingerly touched the bark of a low hanging branch. It crumbled to dust at her fingertips. Surprised, she pounced back and looked to the Doctor for an explanation. He was studying the tree intently and aimed the sonic at it. When it made a low buzzing instead of its usual high pitched whine, he flapped his arms down like a child.

"Why do I always forget, you don't do wood?" He flicked at it and it retorted with a spark.

"So it really is a tree, then? It looks more dead than I could ever think possible."

"Something very devastating happened here. There used to be a lot of plant-life here, I can tell. The soil is springy," he bobbed up and down on the balls of his feet, "so there must have been some kind of grass all over. That would explain why everything is black." He reached out and barely touched one of the twigs off a main branch and half the tree went tumbling down. "Charred. Charred to a crisp." He looked around as if waiting for something to sneak up behind him. It was freaking Clara out. "Let's move on." He took a couple steps away from the tree and then stumbled and fell flat on his face.

"Doctor!" Clara was pretty used to the Doctor running into and breaking things left and right, but for some reason, this fall had less of the 'Doctor flair' that seemed to accompany his many blunders. But he recovered quickly. He bounced up, shook himself off and ran a hand through his hair.

"Nothing to worry about," he stated as he straightened his bow tie. "Just…tripped on a root. Let's keep going."

And so they did. But as Clara walked, she herself, accidentally kicked at an unsuspecting root, but instead of tumbling like the Doctor had the thing poofed under her foot and became one with the black soil. There was no way she could ever have properly _tripped_ over it. She peered at the Doctor from behind as they walked, looking for any sign of…strange Doctor behavior. Well…stranger than usual, she thought. But he seemed okay, for the moment. Maybe he was just being clumsy and she was just being paranoid. This atmosphere was supposed to help him anyway.

So she sped up her pace to walk in step next to him.

The Doctor couldn't believe what he'd done back at the tree. He'd actually tripped over his _own_ feet. Sure he was clumsy, and things had way of getting in _his _way but he was rarely _that_ bad. But at the moment he felt okay, so he wasn't going to stress himself about it just yet. There was still some time.

He flicked out his sonic screwdriver with a flourish and pointed it in the direction they were walking, trying to keep track of the life sign he'd picked up on earlier. They were still heading the right way but something else made his stop dead in his tracks. Clara stopped too and looked at him with those big, brown eyes of hers.

The reading he was getting was disturbing. It was picking up particles in the air that resembled something very similar to…

Oh, that was not good.

He flicked his screwdriver back down and tucked it away in his coat pocket. And kept walking. Clara was asking questions as she always did but the Doctor wasn't in a place to answer any of them. His head was hurting too much to think anyway.

Oh, dear god. It hurt to _think_? That was not good.

"_Doctor!_" Clara pushed at his side and he finally spun around. He was expecting an angry outburst to be thrown at her almost involuntarily but instead he found himself pulling her up into his arms. He hung on to her for a long time and she held him back. "What's wrong?" she asked into his tweed jacket. He smoothed her hair.

"I don't know how to fix this. I always know how to fix things."

"Maybe since it's because you have to fix this for yourself. You're always fixing things for other people, but hardly ever for yourself."

He held on a bit longer and then released her. She gave him a small smile and just that seemed to raise his spirits.

"Come on. If we keep going, we'll find that life sign eventually."

So they kept walking. And walking. And walking. Until they saw a little light out on the horizon.

"Doctor? What's that?" She pointed out to the light be he had already seen it.

"That's our life sign." They shared a smile at having found an actual _thing_ to set out for, but a sound made both of them stop in their tracks.

It was a low rumbling. The sound of a car idling in an intersection. There was another rumble too, only slightly higher and more guttural. Like an animal's warning growl.

An animal.

The Doctor felt a small tug on his coat sleeve and looked to down to see Clara's fingers latched on like a scared child. He put his free hand against hers and then slowly went for his sonic screwdriver.

The sound was louder now. More persistent. He buzzed the sonic this way and that and didn't like what he saw. They were surrounded by life signs from every angle. He looked around and saw the movement they had missed before while they had been walking. He could see now the shadowy creatures that moved against the blackness, seeming to take refuge in the dark soil. They were low the ground, the Doctor observed, but he couldn't tell if they had a real _form_ or not.

He decided it didn't matter since appeared almost certainly hostile anyway. They were closing in and quickly, swirling around all black and shadowy and just downright creepy.

"Clara?"

"Yes, Doctor?" Her voice was as brittle as she looked.

"We should run." But they continued to stand there glued to their spots. Out of fear or something else, the Doctor couldn't tell.

But pretty soon, they found their legs and both the Doctor and Clara ran as hard and as fast as they could toward that little speck of light in the distance.


	6. Sped Up

They ran together and that part felt good. Running with Clara always felt good in a weird, terrifying way. But what didn't feel good was the rhythmic ache that had taken residence in his head. The Doctor hardly ever got headaches. Maybe it was a Time Lord thing. All he knew was he only ever got headaches when something was wrong with him. And of course something was wrong with him. He felt like a complete idiot and had no idea how to tell Clara.

"Clara?" He didn't know what he would say, but he had to start somewhere.

"Yes?"

"I…I'm a blundering idiot."

"Is this really the time to batter yourself with insults?" She stole a sideways glance but almost tripped because of it.

"Oh, I can't tell you now." He would tell her when they were safe. But right now, the shadow creatures were following close behind, almost tickling their heels. It was only a little farther to the light. They could see now that it was a house. Or more like a cottage. Or more like a shack. The closer they got, the more hopeless he felt. Could there possibly be anyone home? Besides crazy shadow monsters? "Oh, what do you want?" He shouted behind him. The creatures rumbled, it seemed, with amusement. Like they were mocking them as they ran. Playing a game of chase.

The Doctor whipped out his sonic screwdriver, just because it comforted him in times like this. He buzzed it behind him and, to his surprise, they rumbled unhappily. He looked behind him and realized they didn't like the light. He buzzed them again and they rumbled again. He slowed his pace and began walking backwards flashing the makeshift torch in every direction, warding them off. It seemed to be working.

"Doctor, we're almost there." It was Clara. She was walking backwards too, staying close to him though, since she had no form of light to protect her.

Finally after what seemed a long, long time, they were bathed in the light of a single lantern hanging from a post on the shack…shed, house thing. The shadow creatures growled and rumbled unhappily at the edge of the light like an invisible wall had blocked their path. Blocked their pursuit. It appeared that they were completely vulnerable to light.

The Doctor backed into the wooden wall of the shack, still flashing the sonic. He could see the outline of the creatures' bodies and was completely repulsed.

Arms and legs stuck out in all different areas of the bodies that somehow held a form even though they resembled that of smoke. Wisps of something dark snaked off the rounded edges of the bodies almost as if the things were somehow on smoky fire. Although, instead of looking hot to the touch, they radiated cold and death. Even the yellow slits, he guessed were eyes, were pale and lifeless. He couldn't see a mouth which gave cause for the low rumbling that seemed to be their way of communicating.

They were gross and misshapen. Mutant. He could tell they were in no way natural. Whatever disaster had occurred on this planet must have created these horrible life forms.

The things surrounded the barrier of light, all working over each other, stumbling over one another's limbs, trying to reach the two backed against the wall of the cabin. (That's what he'd call it. A cabin.)

"Doctor? What do we do? They're everywhere. There's no way we could ever find the TARDIS with _these _things running about."

The Doctor tried to think but he couldn't. There was a fog forming around the corners of his vision.

Damn it.

He tried to focus, tried to think of a way out. But with the pounding in his head and the way the world was slowly tilting, there was no way he could figure this out alone.

"Doctor?" Her voice was worried, not scared. He wanted to give her a clever answer and come to her rescue like he always did. That's what the Doctor did, right? Saved Clara. But…damn it.

"Hurry!" A voice shouted from somewhere to their right. The Doctor looked to see a pale face sticking out from behind a door. He was beckoning them inside, steeling glances at the shadowy, death-monsters. "Inside!"

The Doctor breathed a laugh and grabbed Clara's wrist. He towed her inside and she made no protest whatsoever.

The only light in the one-room cabin was that of a single lantern hanging from a high beam above. It didn't really provide much light at all. Just enough to see a couple of tweed mats on the ground and two barrels in a far corner. One seemed to be empty and the other was filled with a strange looking brown root.

Clara took a deep breath and reveled in the security of the small cabin. Although she found herself not wanting to look into the dark corners for too long.

"Who are you?" It was the young man who had saved them from the monsters outside. They must still be out there, she thought. "We thought we were the only ones still alive."

He was blonde and might be sort of handsome if he weren't so dirty. He looked like he hadn't had a bath in a month. Which, he probably hadn't. His light brown eyes were full of fear as he gazed upon the Doctor and Clara.

"What's going on?" It was another voice that sounded from a dark corner of the cabin. He emerged into the faint light. He was shorter and had dark brown hair that hung to his shoulders. It was so greasy it could have been wet.

"Are you a rescue team?" It was the blonde guy. His eyes were was much too expectant and it broke Clara's heart.

"Of course they're not a rescue team, Kor. Look at them." The brown-haired one's voice was hard and gruff. He gave off an air of bitterness and unhappy endings. An air that made Clara want to sit in a corner and think about what she'd done.

"But…" it was Kor, "there's no way anyone could still be alive. Maybe this means there _are_ survivors. Bater, this could be good!"

"No!" His response was too quick and Kor picked up on it. He stiffened and Clara could smell a fight in the air.

"Oi!" Clara clicked her fingers. "Thank you for saving us and all but I think the Doctor and I would like some answers." At his name, she realized he hadn't said a thing since they'd entered the cabin and that seemed strange since the Doctor would normally be bounding about and investigating with all his Doctor-ish exuberance. "Doctor? Aren't I right?" She looked up at him but he seemed to be in his own little world. She nudged his shoulder once…twice, and then properly pushed him. He finally seemed to notice her. "What's wrong?"

"What? Oh…yes…answers." He clapped his hands but not nearly with as must gusto as usual. She stared at him. Wasn't he supposed to be getting better?

"Doctor, are you alright?"

"Answers are the thing everyone needs in times of…times like these when…when mad shadow thingies are chasing you all along the central coast of…no…wait." He seemed to think for a long minute. Clara furrowed her brow at him. "Where are we? Clara, ask these nice folks where we are, won't you? Oh! Folks! People!" He ran up and shook the hand of Kor. "Welcome to…no…wait…Clara, where are we?"

"Doctor, what's wrong with you?"

"Precisely!" He boomed making Clara jump.

"What? Precisely what?"

But the Doctor looked baffled for a moment. He spun around on his heel, his hand flying out behind him in typical Doctor fashion, but in doing so, he accidentally smacked Bater square on the back of the head.

"OW!"

"Oh, sorry." The Doctor twiddled his fingers. "I think…" He began to walk back towards Clara but his foot shifted and stumbled, nearly taking Clara down with him.

"Doctor!"

"What's wrong with him?" Bater asked, peering at him as if he was some disgusting bug carcass.

"I think it's the poison." Clara was talking more to herself than anything but Kor looked worried.

"What poison?"

"He was poisoned earlier on our ship. He said he would be cured if he came onto this planet." She bent down to see if the Doctor was okay since he hadn't picked himself up yet. But just as she was about to touch his shoulder, he bounced back up, smoothing his hair. It reminded Clara of back out at the tree. He had fallen in exactly the same way.

"I lied." The Doctor said as he teetered slightly on the spot. "I'm sorry. I was going to tell you. I didn't realize I'd read my readings wrong. The poison had already started to affect me and I thought I saw something in the readings that would reverse the process…"

Clara heard the 'but' hanging off the end of his explanation. "But?"

"It's speeding up the process. The atmosphere is…speeding up my death." He flapped his hands around a bit, exasperated himself.

Clara was shocked. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because we were being chased by insane shadow creatures from _hell_!"

She had to admit it was a good argument. She remembered him trying to tell her while they were running but hadn't really paid attention because of certain circumstances involving…shadow creatures from hell, as the Doctor so eloquently put it.

"I'm sorry."

"You look like you need to lie down," she said in a small voice. She wasn't happy but realized she had to forgive him. It was no use being angry with someone who was dying.

Oh god.

The Doctor was _dying_.


	7. Wodash

The Doctor lay on one of the tweed mats on the floor. He stared up at the ceiling that slowly spun in a tight circle. He had no idea when he had ended up here. Clara must have helped him. As if on cue with his thoughts, she popped up in front of and smiled.

"Hey, soldier."

He had expected Clara to be angry with him. But she seemed no more annoyed with him than she usually did.

"I really am sorry, Clara. I really thought coming out here would cure me. I suppose I _have _been wrong before."

She smiled. Oh, that smile. The Doctor smiled back and went to prop himself up on his elbows. "Careful." She put a hand against his chest as if to push him back down but didn't and just held herself there. The Doctor, under normal circumstances, would have scrambled out from under her being the _girl -awkward _he was. But, maybe it was the poison giving him courage because he put his hand against hers and steadily met her gaze. "Why aren't you being all silly and embarrassed?" But she herself sounded silly and embarrassed. A blush-y pink spread over her cheeks and the Doctor smiled. How he wanted to touch that beautiful face of hers.

But then he found he _was _touching that beautiful face of hers as gently as he would touch a kitten. "Doctor?" She looked almost frightened but her voice had almost an expectant quality about it. He moved his hand back against her neck and played with her brown hair.

"Clara?" He mimicked her voice and smiled. Was he mocking her? He didn't even know anymore. But what he did know was that Clara was leaning into him ever so slightly. Slightly enough to where if he wanted to…he could lean a bit farther and…and maybe just…

Abruptly Clara stood up taking all the courage and strength the poison had given him with her. His face felt hot. Oh, god, was he blushing? The Doctor didn't blush.

Clara smoothed the skirt of her red sundress and collected herself. "Down boy," she said with a smirk.

The Doctor flapped his mouth open and closed a couple times. "No…I…shut up." There it was. The _girl-awkward _ he was so used to. What had just happened? Had that really been him doing those things? He flopped himself back down against the tweed mat.

"Doctor. What are we going to do? I know I'm supposed to be the one to save you but…we lost the TARDIS. How are you supposed to give a trans-dimensional thingy now?"

The Doctor was sure she'd left. "Yeah…and she also told me that I'd give it to you before I got too worse off. That must have been a lie. I'm already pretty worse off, I think. Unless it _does_ get worse. Ooh. I don't want to think about that."

"How do we find the TARDIS? Those _things_ are everywhere."

"What about those _fellows_ over there." He gestured around the whole cabin, not actually knowing where either of them were. And then he realized he'd just completely ignored her question.

"Kor and Bater? They're okay. I like Kor better. Friendlier." She bent down next to him again. He supposed she wasn't worried he was going to attack her anymore or something. When in fact that was really the opposite of what he'd been doing. What _had_ he been doing?

"I don't know how to find the TARIDS. It could be anywhere on this planet." He rubbed his face wearily.

"I'm going to go talk to Kor. Maybe he knows something." And with that Clara was gone in a flash of red. He liked the dress on her. It made her look even prettier than usual.

"So what are they? Really?" she asked the blonde young man as they peered out a through a crack in the rough wooden wall of the cabin.

"They–"

"They're native to this planet." Bater cut him off as he sauntered toward them from a dark corner.

"You like hanging about in dark corners, don't you. Rather creepy."

He shot her a venomous look. "They were here when we crash landed." This planet has a highly magnetic core. It's vibrating constantly and sends wave lengths into space that throw ships and satellites and such off course. We crashed and were almost immediately attacked by those _things_." He looked disgustedly at the wall. Clara knew he was scowling at the monsters on the other side. "They're called the Wodash. And they're pure evil."

"How long have you been here?" Clara asked as she leaned against the wall. It creaked in protest so she straightened back up.

"Only a few weeks about." Bater stared long and hard at Clara and then sniffed. "Why are you and your fella here? This is no place for a honeymoon."

Clara bristled. "He is _not_…anything like that. We were supposed to be on vacation."

"Whatever. What are you doing here?"

"I don't know. We were on our way to…somewhere," she remembered the Doctor had been keeping it a secret right before they ended up on this god awful place. "and then we landed here instead. It's as simple as that. If you want more information about it, go ask him." She didn't understand why she was getting so defensive. Something about Bater put her on edge.

"He doesn't seem to be in a talking mood."

Clara glanced over at the Doctor to see him sleeping peacefully on the floor. She sighed. He was dying and she was standing here making idle chat.

"I need to do something. He's not doing well. He's not normally like…how you saw."

"Got a good arm though," said Bater bitterly, rubbing the back of his head. Kor snickered.

"Do you have an extra lantern?" Clara had a new resolve. She would go hunting for the TARDIS herself, get the trans-dimensional thingy, go and get the medicine from the past, and save the Doctor. She _had_ to.

"What do you need a lantern for?" It was Kor. He looked a little nervous to hear her answer.

"Well, I need to go find my ship."

"Absolutely not." Bater said.

"Excuse me?"

"They'll kill you." It was as final as that.

"Not if I'm surrounded by light." She puffed out her chest. "Now, sir. Please give me a lantern. This ship is my home and if I don't find it, well…my Doctor will die and I can't let that happen."

Bater stared her down for a long time. And then huffed and walked away. She thought he had walked away dimply in frustration. But then he returned with a lit lantern and practically threw it at her. "Don't die. That's the only advice I can give." And then he walked back to his dark little corner.

Clara walked over to the Doctor to tell him goodbye and that she would be back soon.

"Well, I'm going with you," he said when she'd managed to wake him up. He sat up and heaved himself up onto his feet. If he was on the verge of collapsing, he was doing a good job at hiding it.

"What? No, you're not. There's no way you can…do anything. Stay here, please."

"Clara." He had that Doctor look in his eye. He was about to give her a speech. She could feel it. He always got this certain ancient way about him when he was about to give a speech. As if all his experiences in life were leaking through and his walls were down for just a small amount of time. Enough time to put all the courage and persuasion into an attacking army. So Clara just waited for the oncoming onslaught of words that she'd have to deny. "No."

Clara blinked a couple of times. That was all? But even so, that one word 'no' held so much force and so much longing she just couldn't shoot him down. "Oh, alright. But don't get yourself or me killed." She pointed a slender finger at him.

"I'm the Doctor. Of course I won't get myself _killed_."

But on the first step he took, he was greeted by the hard black floor.


End file.
